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Double the compensation for copyright infringement

Double the compensation for copyright infringement

At the beginning of November 2019, the Constitutional Tribunal examined and ultimately ruled on the legal question posed by the Supreme Court, Civil Chamber, regarding the amount of compensation for damages resulting from the infringement of property rights related to copyright. The legal question arose in connection with a case involving a cable television operator (the defendant) and the Polish Filmmakers Association (the plaintiff). The dispute concerned the plaintiff's claim for payment of twice the amount of remuneration that should have n due to the author for the period during which the defendant did not have a licensing agreement with the plaintiff. As a result, the Supreme Court submitted a question to the Constitutional Tribunal: whether Article 79(1)(3)(b) of the Act of February 4, 1994, on Copyright and Related Rights (Journal of Laws of 2018, item 1191, as amended), to the extent that it allows the holder of copyright whose property rights have n infringed to claim from the person who infringed those rights compensation for the damage caused by paying a sum of money equal to twice the relevant remuneration that would be due at the time of the claim for the grant by the holder of consent to use the work, is consistent with Article 64(1) and (2) in conjunction with Article 31(3) in conjunction with Article 2 of the Constitution?

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Is triple not constitutional, but double is?

It is worth noting that in the past, this provision, to the extent that it concerned the possibility of claiming three times the appropriate remuneration that would be due at the time of its claim for the authorized granting of permission to use a given work, was deemed unconstitutional.

This time, the subject of the legal question was the same provision, but to the extent that it allows for the claim of double remuneration. Interestingly, almost the entire community of creators and artists was awaiting the final decision in this matter, which, in the event of a positive outcome, would have additional advantages in the fight against entities infringing copyright.

Doubling is OK.

In its ruling of November 5, 2019 (case file number P 14/19), the Constitutional Tribunal answered the question posed by the Supreme Court in the affirmative, stating that the aforementioned provision is consistent with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.

Double as effective normalization.

The justification stated that the claim for double the compensation is not related to or dependent on the degree of fault of the defendant, i.e., the party infringing copyright, which should be viewed differently from civil penalties. Consequently, double the compensation cannot be considered an amount unrelated to the actual value of the damage suffered by the rights holder. As a result, the Court found that the provision in question effectively mitigates the differences between the parties in a dispute arising from the infringement of copyright by its unlawful use. Thus, the rights holder is in a somewhat weaker position due to the more difficult task of detecting copyright infringements and proving the specific amount of damage. Therefore, granting the rights holder the possibility of claiming double the compensation that would be due at the time of its claim for granting permission to use the work should be considered an effective regulation, taking into account the constitutional standards of control.

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Only paying a nominal licensing fee when caught would encourage copyright infringement.

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